College Football Week 8

[LinvilleGorge]

I don't blame the refs. Yeah there were some bad calls. But the D absolutely failed to stop the run and we dropped literally nearly double digit passes. Do those things and you're going to lose. It's really just that simple.

[JVic]

23 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Going for it on 4th and 12 in chip shot FG range with roughly three and a half minutes on the clock and all three timeouts in your back pocket was just inexcusable. Continuing to play a guy who was dropping everything and visibly coming apart on the sidelines was just inexcusable. Sometimes you have to save a kid from melting down when he's having a terrible game. As bad as we were overall last night McCollum's constant drops honestly cost us the game. I can't ever remember a receiver dropping that many passes in one game probably because they don't get an opportunity to do it. At some point the coach wakes up and yanks them. Not Mack, not last night.

Situational coaching is something that has never existed at North Carolina.  It's like the Panthers feeder school.   

Butch Davis was terrible at it, but was a great recruiter.  And he got nothing out of his teams because of his ineptness at in game adjustments and coaching. 

Larry Fedora was literally a walking talking bad timeout, challenge, clock management piece of poo, but was super buff. 

And now we have Mack, who is way more interested in doing the Dougie with his players and telling recruits "I was on ESPN, I can get you marketed and drafted" (see Tez Walker) than actually paying attention to basic football coaching.  Minus Florida State, we are 21 points better than every ACC team from a talent perspective, but we are minus 7 points from every team from a coaching perspective.   

You could literally make Hubert Davis the coach of the football team and it would look exactly the same. And I think Hubert Davis sucks at his job too.  

[LinvilleGorge]

Mack has never been a great in game or Xs and Os coach. He's a recruiter and a program builder.

But going for that 4th and 12 in that situation instead of taking the easy 3 was just... I mean, WTF was that???

[LinvilleGorge]

Now with that said, I'm not trying to bash Mack. Other than the baffling 4th and 12 decision no one is expecting Mack to get us any Ws with in game tactical brilliance. If you are, you're just not familiar with Mack Brown.

Brown was absolutely the right hire at the time. Fedora had Tepper'd the Heels program and we needed someone to come in and right the ship. We just gotta nail the hire on his successor or it'll all be for naught.

[Move the Panthers to Raleigh]

11 hours ago, CamWhoaaCam said:

Maybe this QB class is overrated?

 

 

 

 

Watch CJ Stroud be the best QB to come out for 5 years…

[kungfoodude]

2 hours ago, 45catfan said:

Yep and the reason we should have built our skill positions (outside of QB) this season, let this coaching staff get acclimated to one another, rode with a veteran like Dalton and THEN got our QB in the draft this spring.

*incoming form the peanut gallery*

"But you say that every year!"

For the record,  I do not.

 

I mean, take your shot if you can. I don't blame them for moving up. Maybe hindsight will be kind to the move or maybe we look like the franchise we have been.

Nothing is guaranteed. Remember when Luck went back? Williams very well could. Maybe Maye does too. You just never know.

[kungfoodude]

3 hours ago, Varking said:

It was a terrible game for him. Reminded me of what he looked like when he played at Indiana. I’m skeptical of most kids who go out west and put up massive numbers like Penix, Nix, Minshew, Eason, and I’m sure I’m forgetting others as I wake up for the day. 

The difference is that the Pac 12 is the best conference this time. It's no different than the Big 12 QB's that put up numbers all the time because of how insane those offenses usually are.

[LinvilleGorge]

9 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

I mean, take your shot if you can. I don't blame them for moving up. Maybe hindsight will be kind to the move or maybe we look like the franchise we have been.

Nothing is guaranteed. Remember when Luck went back? Williams very well could. Maybe Maye does too. You just never know.

Exactly. I understood the logic behind the trade. We were sitting at #9 and correctly judged that we were too low to have a shot at one of the top QB prospects. After playing considerably better down the stretch last season it was reasonable to expect not to be drafting highly in 2024 with theoretically better coaching. Evidently we targeting trading up to #3 but when the cost wasn't all that different to go to #1 whg not just jump all the way up? It's rare that there are #1 overall caliber QBs in the draft and the #1 overall pick is actually available via trade. The biggest issue I had with the trade is including our only proven WR in the trade package to acquire our new QB. DJ and Ickey probably should've been the two guys on the roster who just were not part of any discussions given that we knew we were bringing in a highly drafted rookie QB to groom and build around.

But then we stopped playing on paper and in theory and started playing on the field and... well, fug.

[kungfoodude]

2 hours ago, Varking said:

I’m not sold on this class outside of the top 2 in Williams and Maye. Depth is nice but if I’m drafting a QB I’m looking for  starter and I don’t see it in guys like Nix and Penix. I also didn’t think highly of Hooker last year and I’d put them in his tier. 
 

Older dudes dominating college football after transfers. Penix and Nix will turn 24 before the draft. This is Penix like 6th year of college ball. I’m not trying to give a QB until he turns 27 to figure out if he can be the guy or not in the NFL. 

I can understand that thought process but if you come in and can play, then it is was it is.

I mean Aaron Rodgers literally didn't become a starter until he was 25. Delhomme came here and was no spring chicken. Kurt Warner, Geno Smith, Jeff Garcia, etc, etc. There are examples of older QB's making it finally as NFL starting QB's. The biggest factor should be if you have the skills to play and how ready you are for it.

Or you could keep beating the "he's so young!" Sam Darnold drum. I care way less about your age than if you can play in this league.

[LinvilleGorge]

4 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

The difference is that the Pac 12 is the best conference this time. It's no different than the Big 12 QB's that put up numbers all the time because of how insane those offenses usually are.

The best at what? Offense? Sure. But they're always the worst at defense.

[kungfoodude]

1 minute ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Exactly. I understood the logic behind the trade. We were sitting at #9 and correctly judged that we were too low to have a shot at one of the top QB prospects. After playing considerably better down the stretch last season it was reasonable to expect not to be drafting highly in 2924 with theoretically better coaching. Evidently we targeting trading up to #3 but when the cost wasn't all that different to go to #1 whg not just jump all the way up? It's rare that there are #1 overall caliber QBs in the draft and the #1 overall pick is actually available via trade. The biggest issue I had with the trade is including our only proven WR in the trade package to acquire our new QB. DJ and Ickey probably should've been the two guys on the roster who just were not part of any discussions given that we knew we were bringing in a highly drafted rookie QB to groom and build around.

But then we stopped playing on paper and in theory and started playing on the field and... well, fug.

Yep. The plan can be the best in the world but it may not hold up to live fire. It just is what it is.

There is no sense dwelling on the pick at the moment. We can use it to fling onto the "fire Fitt" pile but we are in the poo now. It's not changing. Better try and make the best of it.

[kungfoodude]

1 minute ago, LinvilleGorge said:

The best at what? Offense? Sure. But they're always the worst at defense.

They aren't the worst defensively this season. They do have 4 teams in the top 25 scoring defenses.

That list is loaded with Big Ten teams. Does anyone really believe they are are that good defensively or is it because the Big Ten has fuging absolute dog poo offensive football again?

I lean heavy Pac 12 this year because they have one of the deepest top tier QB pools I have seen recently. It's an insane list of college elite or near elite talent. 

That's really why I think they are the best.

[45catfan]

1 hour ago, MillionDollarCam said:

To be fair, Purdy is not old and he didn’t have to transfer to another school to find success. He’s currently 23 years old in his second season in the NFL and turns 24 in December. Both Penix and Nix will be 24 when they are drafted.

I guess you could argue that he is older in the sense that he spent four years in college but all four years were spent at Iowa State.

Purdy was 22, the age that you said was too young for QB’s on the biggest stage, when he was leading the 49ers to the postseason last year.

There’s also a debate as to whether Purdy is just an average QB surrounded by elite coaching (Shanahan) and talent (McCaffrey, Kittle, Samuel, and Aiyuk) or if he’s an above average QB. Unfortunately we’ll never know the answer to that unless Purdy leaves San Francisco.

But back to the main premise, Penix’s and Nix’s career paths are more similar to Kenny Pickett’s than Purdy’s, and we are seeing how well the Pickett experience is going right now (sarcasm).

This isn’t to say that Penix and Nix couldn’t be nice players at the NFL level but I don’t think the success of Brock Purdy really proves that they could be, their career paths aren’t really similar at all.

Purdy was a true Senior.  I could care less about transfers. If that were the case and that was a 'ding', Cam Newton would have been the poster child for failure.  My point was and is that 24 or 25 year old QBs  being viewed as old is moronic.  I see it as being more experienced and each situation is nuanced and can't be lumped all into one category, but a QB with 4+ years of high quality starting experience at one school or multiple ones is better than some wonder-child 21 year old that likely was a product of a flashy system or successful program.

[45catfan]

38 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

I mean, take your shot if you can. I don't blame them for moving up. Maybe hindsight will be kind to the move or maybe we look like the franchise we have been.

Nothing is guaranteed. Remember when Luck went back? Williams very well could. Maybe Maye does too. You just never know.

Luck went back because we had the #1 pick.  Smart move.  Yes some underclassmen man go back but, MANY of these guys are near or at the end of their eligiblity.  Even if the top of the class thins out due to returning students, the amount of high value picks at QB is ridiculous. 

I was NOT in favor of moving up for the QB this draft, none of them.  As it stands now, only one of the 3 looks to have been worth it and he's not the one we took.